Talk to me about travel soccer like im stupid

[Anonymous]

SocAnon wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it common for a club to have two teams per age group? For example, two teams in U10 girls? Can anyone speak to the dynamics about this?

Also, if the club only has 1 or 2 teams per age group, this is considered a small club…. And growth a development might be limited if are serious about soccer. We are stuck in a small club now, our eyes are open to how bigger vs small clubs operate. We are crushed by the bigger clubs regularly. We are run over at all tournaments also. With more kids, it allows the club to pay for better coaching staff and run better clinics and eventually develop higher level teams in higher leagues that the small clubs won’t even compete in. (There may be exceptions.) I’m starting to develop the opinion that small clubs are like glorified Rec programs.

Your reasoning and analysis is off somewhat.
Several of the small clubs in the DMV have exceptional coaches who rather have developmental impact in quality versus quantity.

The bigger clubs are selecting their top team, top two teams, from a much bigger pool of players. Then have 3 or 4 weak teams in said age group.
Give almost any U10, U11 or U12 coach 13 early bloomers for 7v7 and 9v9 and they're going to 'win' games. Doesn't mean the coaching is good.

People spend so much time and effort focused on the aesthetics of name-brand clubs and leagues early on, they always miss the fact that youth soccer is about individual development.
Your kid being on a big name fancy club may float parents ego, but no scout or coach of a true high level team cares.

MLS Next teams in the DMV are filled with kids developed at 'small clubs', then the big clubs reap the benefits.
So saying small clubs are glorified Rec makes you look like a fool.

I like the thoughts on this, can you name 1 or 2 small clubs that seems to produce quality talent. Again, from a Club perspective, not just the 1 off coach who would excel at any club.

Manassas (Not Op)

Several kids on DC united who started at that small club at my son’s age (b. 2009)and year younger (b. 2010)

We opted for a large club - and left for smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay away at all costs. Put your kid in a different sport.

It will bleed $ and time and unless you have the stomach for parent douchery politics it will be a big regret.

If you believe in never getting involved. Keeping your mouth shut and not “advocating” or pulling out all stops to bulldoze your kids way: run! Run far!

Soccer really is in a class if it’s own when it comes to meddling parents.

*softball has entered the chat*

[Anonymous]

How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

SocAnon wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it common for a club to have two teams per age group? For example, two teams in U10 girls? Can anyone speak to the dynamics about this?

Also, if the club only has 1 or 2 teams per age group, this is considered a small club…. And growth a development might be limited if are serious about soccer. We are stuck in a small club now, our eyes are open to how bigger vs small clubs operate. We are crushed by the bigger clubs regularly. We are run over at all tournaments also. With more kids, it allows the club to pay for better coaching staff and run better clinics and eventually develop higher level teams in higher leagues that the small clubs won’t even compete in. (There may be exceptions.) I’m starting to develop the opinion that small clubs are like glorified Rec programs.

Your reasoning and analysis is off somewhat.
Several of the small clubs in the DMV have exceptional coaches who rather have developmental impact in quality versus quantity.

The bigger clubs are selecting their top team, top two teams, from a much bigger pool of players. Then have 3 or 4 weak teams in said age group.
Give almost any U10, U11 or U12 coach 13 early bloomers for 7v7 and 9v9 and they're going to 'win' games. Doesn't mean the coaching is good.

People spend so much time and effort focused on the aesthetics of name-brand clubs and leagues early on, they always miss the fact that youth soccer is about individual development.
Your kid being on a big name fancy club may float parents ego, but no scout or coach of a true high level team cares.

MLS Next teams in the DMV are filled with kids developed at 'small clubs', then the big clubs reap the benefits.
So saying small clubs are glorified Rec makes you look like a fool.

I like the thoughts on this, can you name 1 or 2 small clubs that seems to produce quality talent. Again, from a Club perspective, not just the 1 off coach who would excel at any club.

We are at an MLSNext club and came from a small club (one team per age group). Unfortunately, it’s a small world at this level and I prefer to stay anonymous but it’s a small MD club. There are at least a couple of kids who leave the small club every year to go to MLSNext clubs.

I wouldn’t say that small club is generally good at developing all kids. I think they’re good at identifying kids that are talented and making sure they do develop and get the best opportunities such as playing up or rostering on more than 1 team or playing different positions. The ones that do move though are the kind of kid who is doing a lot on their own too.

ROSA. 2011 state cup semifinalist this year. They did not field every age group last year. Some ages have 1 new team and are still competitive in edp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

20-30 mins.
1 game per season is 1-1.5 hrs away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

Depends on the league. On the girls side at least:

Pre-ECNL/ECNL/MLS Next - Typical game can be an hour or more away. Can require overnights even for non-showcase (NJ/PA)
EDP - Typical game is around an hour away - lots of games in Baltimore and MD/PA border region
NCSL - Typical game is 30-45 minutes, but there are some outlier clubs (St. Mary's comes to mind) that require a good drive

[Anonymous]

And before someone corrects me, I know MLS Next is boys only. I wrote that before adding the girls qualifier!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

Depends on the league. On the girls side at least:

Pre-ECNL/ECNL/MLS Next - Typical game can be an hour or more away. Can require overnights even for non-showcase (NJ/PA)
EDP - Typical game is around an hour away - lots of games in Baltimore and MD/PA border region
NCSL - Typical game is 30-45 minutes, but there are some outlier clubs (St. Mary's comes to mind) that require a good drive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

Lol. The term travel is subjective. That's cute that you have to travel that far average/non ecnl competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

Congrats on having to spend more time and money to travel greater distances because of a lack of local talent? 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

Congrats on having to spend more time and money to travel greater distances because of a lack of local talent? 🤷‍♀️

Not a big difference between them and kids traveling to DE, NY, PA, NJ etc to play ECNL and NAL
Its unnecessary expenses and time and effort to travel to play competition that can easily be found in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

Congrats on having to spend more time and money to travel greater distances because of a lack of local talent? 🤷‍♀️

Not a big difference between them and kids traveling to DE, NY, PA, NJ etc to play ECNL and NAL
Its unnecessary expenses and time and effort to travel to play competition that can easily be found in the DMV.

Np. You must not know the area well.

Fc delco PA 2h20m
Pa classics 2h
Sporting in DE 1h45m
Keystone in PA 1h20m

Not a big difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far away do you actually travel for soccer in this area?

1 - 1.5 hours with traffic on average. Loudoun and Baltimore area teams are the outliers for major clubs. Sometimes keystone in PA. Now many dmv clubs 2nd teams are in NAL (league) with clubs such as pa classics, pda or fc delco so they have to travel to PA or NJ for an away game.

According to rankings, this area has the most dense population of nationally ranked teams with great competition. I would say more than 90 minutes isn't necessary unless you are mls next/ecnl level.

(This is for boys, I know ecnl girls travel to NC, etc but I'm not familiar.)

I should have clarified that 20-30 minutes was average. 1.5 hours was the maximum.

Lol. That’s cute that you all call that “travel”. We’re in Colorado. For non-ECNL/RL games we sometimes have to go from the front range to Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Springs or Laramie WY (I guess Wyoming isn’t big enough so they compete with Colorado). For RL, our region includes Utah and that’s a 9 hour drive in good weather but our games there are scheduled for January so we’re flying to avoid driving though winter storms. Our region for ECNL includes Texas and Oklahoma—up to 15 hours to drive but everyone usually flies.

Congrats on having to spend more time and money to travel greater distances because of a lack of local talent? 🤷‍♀️

Not a big difference between them and kids traveling to DE, NY, PA, NJ etc to play ECNL and NAL
Its unnecessary expenses and time and effort to travel to play competition that can easily be found in the DMV.

Np. You must not know the area well.

Fc delco PA 2h20m
Pa classics 2h
Sporting in DE 1h45m
Keystone in PA 1h20m

Not a big difference?

Pp again FWIW NAL is new for second teams in this area and I do agree that it is too much travel for that level considering they could have stayed in edp for mostly the same teams and the same level. But my child doesn't play in NAL so to each their own. What can you do? I'm sure it was a business decision for clubs more than families.